“Allah has instructed me to sell them. They are his property and I will carry out his instructions.”

Local residents reportedly gave the group the name Boko Haram, its official name is Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, which in Arabic means “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad.”

Female student stands in a burnt classroom at Maiduguri Experimental School, a private nursery, primary and secondary school burnt by the Islamist group Boko Haram in 2012.Photo: GettyImages)

It’s not just western education that is forbidden

Boko Haram wants to create a “pure” Islamic state ruled by sharia law. It reportedly believes that Muslims should not participate in political or social activities associated with Western society.

This can include voting in elections, wearing shirts and trousers, or receiving a secular education.

They kidnap and rape women

These three women and six children were abducted by Boko Haram in May, 2013.Photo: Getty Images

Long before they grabbed international headlines for abducting the teenage girls, they were known for kidnapping women in the street or from farms.

“Now they are picking up women anywhere and using them to satisfy themselves,” a commander with the anti-Boko Haram group, the Civilian Joint Task Force, told Human Rights Watch in 2013.

“Some of the girls we found hiding when we invaded Boko Haram camps around Sambisa [Forest] told us they were dragged into vehicles when hawking on the street.

“When we return them home, their families are too ashamed to keep them because nobody will marry a girl who has been raped or has a child for these bad people.”

They think it’s OK to enslave women

“Girls, you should go and get married,” Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video.

“There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women.”

The group is known for using gunmen on motorbikes to kill police, politicians and anyone else who does not support the group.

The group has killed clerics from other Muslim groups and a Christian preacher.

It has been involved in bombings on Christmas Day in 2011, a New Year’s Eve attack in 2010, attacks during the inauguration of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 and further bombings on the UN headquarters in Abuja.

They use child soldiers

They hate Christians

In a YouTube video the group’s leader Abubakar Shekau said their targeting of Christians was revenge for previous attacks on Muslims.

“Either you are with us, I mean, we are Muslims who are following solid footsteps, or you’re with Obama, Francois Hollande, George Bush … Ban Ki-moon and his people generally, any unbeliever … kill, kill, kill,” Shekau says.

“This war is against Christians, I mean Christians generally.”

A US Congressional report released in November 2011 warned that the group was an “emerging threat” to the US and its interests.

It suggested that Boko Haram could have formed ties with al Qaeda-linked groups in Africa, but the group has denied this.